Many doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows dream of becoming teachers and doing scientific research in universities. However, the threshold for teaching in colleges and universities is getting higher and higher; After entering the school, the requirements for assessment and promotion have also risen. Therefore, whether it is a doctoral student or postdoctoral fellow who wants to enter a university, or a young teacher who has not been in the university for a long time, he must have a clear understanding of the survival and development of university teachers.
Graduate supervisors are faced with a variety of complex tasks, including attending classes, doing research, supervising graduate students, traveling, filling in **, holding meetings, reviewing manuscripts, reviewing projects, and so on.
When studying the "survival and development of graduate supervisors" as a "system", it is best to "isolate" or "extract" a few key words, which are actually the "main contradictions" in philosophy.
Project, ** Graduate Students.
The above "system" can be described simply as an equilateral triangle. The three vertices of an equilateral triangle are the project and the graduate student. The tutor is in the center of the equilateral triangle.
Let's start with the project.
A project has multiple meanings, it means funding, but it also means a certain recognition or "level". The project has created training conditions for graduate students - the funds can be used to purchase instruments and equipment for graduate students to do scientific research, and scientific research subsidies can be issued to graduate students. The project is also linked to the personal interests of the mentor (year-end bonus, scientific research commission, job title, job assessment).
Therefore, in order to be able to apply for the program, teachers need to spend a lot of energy to write the project application; Moreover, even if the conditions of the research group (staffing, technology accumulation, experimental space) are not fully met, or if you are not sure that you will be able to make a project, you must apply for a project.
In order to be able to apply for the project, you also need to participate in academic conferences to present your scientific research results, accumulate contacts, and publish good papers.
Go on to say **.
* is the "hard currency" of academia. Without **, it is difficult to apply for scientific research projects. Once you apply for a scientific research project, you often need to publish ** to conclude the project.
But the problem is that the publication of ** is not so fast; Moreover, academic evaluation values publication in high-level academic journals**, but this is difficult.
Let's talk about graduate students.
If the mentor does the experiment "single-handedly", the number of publications will be very small, and the project will be difficult to carry out.
Graduate students often rely on their supervisors' projects to do research; In this way, graduate students get scientific research grants, have the financial conditions to do scientific research, and can also publish**, produce graduation**, and the supervisor also gets the experimental data and ** required for the completion of the project.
However, some graduate students have problems in scientific research ability, scientific research motivation, role perception, etc., which makes the supervisor feel unsatisfactory.
The project and the first graduate student are closely related and indispensable for the survival and development of the supervisor. In today's situation, it is impossible to recruit graduate students without a program, or there are no conditions to train graduate students; Without graduate students, it is difficult to publish in batches**; Without **, it is difficult to apply for a project or complete a project.
The above analysis inspires us that supervisors should have strong abilities in applying for projects, publication**, and mentoring graduate students, and should be able to grasp the delicate balance to promote the cycle of these three (sustainable development).
To illustrate the latter point, let me give you some examples.
In order to ensure that the graduate students can graduate, some supervisors choose to publish the graduate students' ** in some open access journals with fast review but questionable quality. Although graduate students can successfully graduate with such **, supervisors will encounter difficulties when applying for projects, because reviewers will think that their ** quality is not high as soon as they see the names of these journals.
On the other hand, some supervisors choose to submit ** to several journals "from high to low", resulting in graduate students not graduating on time. Although it was finally published in a journal of acceptable grade, future graduate students are reluctant to study with such a supervisor.
Scientific research and life.
Above, I took the project and ** graduate student as the three vertices of an equilateral triangle and constructed a simple plane model.
The guru is in the center of this equilateral triangle. But in fact, this flat model can be expanded into a three-dimensional model. Above this equilateral triangle, there can be a dot, which is "scientific research". Underneath this equilateral triangle, there can be a dot, which is "life". In this way, a triangular bivertebral model is formed.
Let's start with scientific research. Supervisors also need to have a passion for scientific research, and preferably be able to read literature and do experiments.
But the problem is that the tutor is very busy (busy with work, life, and various chores), and it is difficult to find time to read the literature and do experiments. This may affect the guidance of graduate students, the first grade, and the application for projects.
Let's talk about life. Tutors are often already married, and it takes a lot of time to take care of the family (picking up and dropping off the children, cooking and cooking, tutoring with homework). As I get older, I don't have enough energy and my physical health is not ideal. Also, the age of the parents of the mentor and his or her spouse is increasing, which makes life uncertain. In addition, the tutor himself will also spend a lot of time in life, such as reading books, watching movies, shopping, and so on.
The above analysis shows that there is a relationship between scientific research and life. Many people who succeed in scientific research often lower their requirements for life, streamline the time spent on life, or let others do the things in life, and concentrate their energy on scientific research.
Discuss. From this model, it can be seen that work and life are not idealistic. However, what others see is often idealized results, such as a doctoral student publishing multiple papers in high-quality journals**, graduate supervisors publishing more than a dozen scientific research papers in "Zone 1" journals, and so on.
This brings up a contradiction.
We know that nature follows the law of conservation of energy, the law of conservation of mass. For university teachers, their energy and potential can be developed, not necessarily a constant value.
However, if you take on too many tasks and bring in a lot of projects in order to survive, you may not be able to "put things in order" (such as affecting your health, affecting your time with your family, affecting the relationship between teachers and students, and ultimately not being able to complete the tasks you set at the beginning).
In other words, we should look at the problem comprehensively, not just one side. In other words, when you are applying for projects, doing projects, writing, revising, submitting, and supervising graduate students, you are actually faced with a variety of choices and ethical tests.
Are you going to "ignore your conscience" and put your general ** into high-grade journals for your own survival, or are you going to "sell them at a normal price"? Are you ready to push graduate students like crazy, or do you serve them to graduate and even allow them to participate in internships of their choice?
Work-life balance is also an issue. How do you strike a balance? Do you strike a balance at each stage, or do you sacrifice your life before you get a so-called "tenure" and relax a little later?
Every supervisor and graduate student and postdoctoral fellow who is interested in teaching can think about such a question.